It's around 10 a.m., and the boys are getting ready for training. One by one, they walked out to the training pitch, getting ready to stand in a circle for a team talk.
Gareth walked towards them and stood in the circle with his staff members too. "Alright guys, this is the last training here at camp before the quarterfinals tomorrow against France," he started, and he looked around as the boys were listening closely.
"It's going to be a tough game, but I know that we're ready for any challenge. Keep doing what you do; work hard today. I have no doubt that this will be the last training session here; let's keep focused and do what we do best; sounds good?" He looked around, and all of them nodded, showing the gaffer that they're ready for anything.
They all knew what to do: first run around the pitch, then get lined up to do some exercises. After that, they had short game in small teams and did rondos at the very end.
———
"Nah, bro, get that phone out of my face," Luke looked at Saka, knowing he was going to do his spelling video on TikTok.
"Come on, bro, don't be boring," Saka looked at him, Luke took off, now wanting to potentially embarrass himself.
The boys laughed at him as he took off from the table. It was lunchtime, and they had just finished eating. Nothing much was planned today.
"I feel kind of nervous, you know," Declan admitted as he looked at Mason and Bukayo.
"About what? The game?" Saka asked.
"Yea," Declan nodded, leaning back in his chair.
"Nah, don't think too much about it; we got this," Mason said. Saka nodded in agreement. "We're facing a good team, but we're good too," he said.
"I guess you're right," Declan let out a deep breath.
———
"Mom, it's nothing to worry about," Alina sighed, trying to keep her cool on the phone with her mom.
"Please just go to the doctors," Lisa begged her.
"I'm not going," she almost shouted. "I have to go now; I'll call you whenever I can," Alina said, quickly hanging up before she loses her shit completely.
Alina had decided to take the matter into her own hands. She's going to the pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test; it won't hurt to try. She didn't tell anyone where she was going; that was the plan until Woody saw her about to leave the boat.
"Were you planning on leaving without telling us?" he asked confused.
"What do you want?" Alina sighed, annoyed. "I need to buy something," she added.
"Can I come? There's literally nothing to do here anymore," he complained.
"Fine," she said, turning around, ready to go to the pharmacy.
———
"Why are we here?" Woody whispered.
"I'm buying a pregnancy test," she whispered back.
"What?! So I was right?"
"No, but I'm still going to check it just so you can shut up about it," she said, grabbing two tests.
Woody watched her pay, and they were ready to head back to the cruise again. Alina was nervous; she knows deep down she's not pregnant, but if she is, how is everyone going to react?
As they arrived back, they quickly got upstairs to the room. Woody took a seat outside the bathroom, and Alina took the tests. She decided to check herself and not drag Woody into it because that boy can stress the hell out of her sometimes.
Once it had been three minutes, she flipped the tests; both tests showed...
...not pregnant
Alina let out a deep breath, kind of relieved that it wasn't positive because she's not ready to be a mom yet. She went out of the bathroom room and showed Woody.
"Why are you smiling?" He looked at her weird
"Because I'm not pregnant, duh," she stated the obvious.
"You know what this means, right?" He looked at her, concerned.
"What?" she asked.
"If you're not pregnant... there could be a serious problem going on with you," he said, making her feel sick to her stomach.
"Or I cold just have a sore throat," she said, trying to convince herself it's nothing to worry about
"In Qatar...where it's 30 degrees everyday...yea totally make sense", woody said, not making it easier for her
"It could be a virus," she shrugged
"Then why are you the only one with it?" He asked a very good question she didn't even think about
"Alina, I'm worried ok, especially because I'm the only one who knows about this, if you die, I'm guilty of the crime," he looked at you, almost panicking.
"Can you calm down for a second, no one is gonna die", she tried to calm him down
"You need to tell Mason."
"No, we're not going to stress him before one of the biggest games of his life," she looked at him.
"Alina, he deserves to know—"
"You don't get it, Woody; he's so stubborn; if I tell him everything that's happened, don't you think he's going to leave camp? I can't let him do that," she said.
"Speaking of him...," Woody looked down at her phone that was placed on the table. Mason had texted her to see if she wanted to meet face time.
"Leave now," she pushed Woody out the door. She called Mason on FaceTime as soon as Woody was out.
"Hey babe," Mason smiled on the screen.
"Hey Mase, how are you?" she asked with a smile on her face.
"Everything's good; how are you? How's everyone else?" he asked.
"Everyone's doing well here too; we're excited for tomorrow," she said.
"Yeah, me too; I've missed you guys," he said.
"We've missed you too, Mase," she smiled.
"Are you sure you're ok?" He chuckled.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" she nervously laughed.
"You sound weird, your voice is rusty, is your throat still hurting?" he asked worried.
"No, no, no, don't worry about that, I'm not in pain or anything, I had a little nap so that must be the reason." She played it cool.
"Ahh, yeah, that does make sense," he said. Alina is lucky that Mason is oblivious half the time, because she isn't that much of a good liar either.
"What are you doing then? Training hard, I bet?" she asked.
"Yeah, all focus on tomorrow," Mason said.
"That's good; make sure to get a good night's sleep for tomorrow," she reminded him.
"I don't think I'll be able to sleep, to be honest," he said, making her giggle.
"Try at least, and if not, you can always text me," she said, making him smile, "thank you."
After a long talk, Alina went back out to spend some time with Mason's family and the kids. Mason had a few interviews to make.
-
AN: I know you guys wanna know what's going on with Alina, and you will know in a few chapters but it all depends on if England loses the game or not because I don't want the setting to be in Qatar when it's revealed (if that makes sense).
